Ford and Rivian founder and CEO, RJ Scaringe, announce a $500 million investment.
Ford Motor and Rivian will not be developing an electric vehicle.
When the automaker invested $500 million in Rivian, they announced the development of a joint vehicle. They initially said it would be for Ford's Lincoln brand. Ford said the automakers would still seek other opportunities to collaborate.
Ian Thibodeau said that the plans have been scrapped. He said that the company still has ties with Rivian, including a 12% stake in the start-up, which reached a value of more than $10 billion at the company's IPO last week.
Ford said both sides have agreed not to pursue any kind of joint vehicle development or platform sharing.
Rivian, which has a much greater market value than Ford, confirmed the end of plans on Friday.
As Ford has scaled its own EV strategy and demand for Rivian vehicles has grown, we have mutually decided to focus on our own projects and deliveries. Our relationship with Ford is an important part of our journey, and Ford remains an investor and ally on our shared path to an electric future, the company said in an email.
Rivian's shares were down by 2% in post-market trading after closing at $128.60 a share. Ford's stock was not changed from its closing price of $19.39 a share.
The decision to end the collaboration was made by Ford CEO Jim Farley, who said that the company was growing confidence in winning in the electric space.
It is more certain to us what we have to do now that the investment has been made. He told automotive news that they were going to develop their own vehicles and that the collaboration with Rivian was dead.
In October 2020, Farley became CEO and took over the Rivian investment and vehicle from his predecessor. Ford bought $415 million in convertible notes from Rivian in July, which will become common stock in June 2022.
Troy Design and Manufacturing is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford and has a contract to supply parts for Rivian's R1 vehicle program.
